Count It All Joy! - Pt 2

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:1-4 ESV).

Life can often be little more than a jumble of letters that we are given to write a story with. Our reading today does not seem to make it any easier when James says to “count it all joy.” We must understand where the emphasis should be placed in the reading. It should be on the all. James is not talking about all our pain, all our trials, or all our hardship; he is talking about the joy. It is the joy in and of itself. Pain is pain, not joy. Trials are trying, not sources of pleasure. Rather, what James has for us, and what the gospel of Christ provides, is a lens on life, and a true vantage point on reality, through which even life’s most painful trials have a vital part to play in our joy. God draws his straightest lines from life’s greatest difficulties to our deepest joys. And not just “even,” but “especially.” In God’s strange and wonderful ways of ruling this world, life’s most painful trials serve a special purpose for our good. God often draws his straightest lines from life’s greatest difficulties to our deepest and sweetest joys. And not just in the long run, but even in the midst of trial. When trials assault our surface pleasures, we’re pressed to consider our deepest, fullest, richest treasures and to tap those roots for sustenance in ways we simply do not when all is well. We also need to understand that James does not say, “Count it only joy.” God does not expect us to receive our trials as only joy. In fact, Christians, of all people, should be most ready to receive pain as pain, tragedy as tragedy, trauma as trauma. We count, or reckon, our trials as joy, because we don’t simply feel them naturally to be so. And, further, don’t think that James only has little trials in view here. He says “trials of various kinds” because he means the big ones, too. It can be easy to see how God is at work in life’s little inconveniences, but our greatest tragedies press the hardest, darkest questions on our soul. Has God abandoned me? Is he really in charge and also good? Is he even there? James will not have us relegate his charge to “count it all joy” simply to the easy stuff. The very issue at stake is the hardest things — the “trials” of tragedy, loss, distress, despondency, and long-term despair. Here is our beginning, where it always should be. It begins and ends with the graceful sovereignty of God who know exactly what we need and when we need it. This is how I may begin to see every trial as a joy unfolding.